„While The War of the Worlds coined the all-out alien invasion, It Came from Outer Space and Invaders from Mars took the theme in more interior psychological directions, crafting eerily paranoid stories. They were less concerned about the world under threat externally than of subversions from within by aliens that steal human bodies and look the same in every way except for emotions. This theme would find grand flowering in later films such as Quatermass 2/The Enemy from Space (1957), The Brain Eaters (1958), I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958), The Day Mars Invaded Earth (1962) and this particular subgenre’s masterpiece Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Of all these body snatchers films, It Came from Outer Space is the only one to feature benevolent aliens or at least ones who only act threatening when they are pushed to it. Indeed, It Came from Outer Space is about the only film other than The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) in the whole of the 1950s not to feature malevolent invading aliens. Like The Day the Earth Stood Still, It Came from Outer Space is critical of humanity’s reaction and shoot-first attitude in the face of the alien – here the aliens only act sinister when redneck attitudes rather than peaceful coexistence comes to the surface.“ – Rezension zu It Came from Outer Space auf Moriareviews.com, abgerufen am 28. Mai 2022.
„The Day the Earth Stood Still was a very fine film, and it had a message – it talked about war and peace and making a friendly invasion instead of an evil one […] I don't know to what extent I was influenced by The Day the Earth Stood Still, but it made a very strong point, and I did a variation on that with It Came from Outer Space. At the end of my film, you realize that these creatures are not evil. They just want to get the hell out before they get destroyed. They're not interested in destroying the Earth – they're afraid of being destroyed themselves.“ – Terry Pace: Rezension zu It Came from Outer Space (Memento vom 11. Dezember 2015 im Internet Archive), Times Daily, Florence (Alabama) 2004, abgerufen am 28. Februar 2012.
„Direction by Jack Arnold whips up an air of suspense and there is considerable atmosphere of reality created, which stands up well enough if the logic of it all is not examined too closely. […] Otherwise, the Ray Bradbury story proves to be good science-fiction.“ – Review: ‘It Came from Outer Space’ (Memento vom 9. Januar 2016 im Internet Archive). Besprechung (eng.) in Variety, 31. Dezember 1952
widescreenmovies.org
Artikel auf Widescreenmovies.org, abgerufen am 5. März 2012.
